Themes and Motifs
In my mind, the general purpose of this memoir was simply to let the world see into the childhood of Tobias Wolff and view the hardships that he had to endure. This very straightforward purpose for writing this book had a very important theme: coping with unmet expectations. From the outset of the story these lofty expectations set by the Wolff’s marred their trek towards new and happy lives in the west. The first summary by Jack of what is currently occurring in his life is “It was 1955 and we were driving from Florida to Utah to get away from a man my mother was afraid of and to get rich on uranium” (4). After further reading this dream falls flat on its face after only a few more pages and is followed by many other false hopes throughout the novel such as a plan to run away to Alaska and a plan to move to Paris with his uncle and aunt to escape his abusive stepfather. These numerous occasions of expectations held too high for reality, seem like they would overwhelm Wolff, however the opposite is true. Whenever one of these dreams was crushed he would simply find another aspiration to set his heart on and help him cope with the horrible situation he was living through in the present.
Another portion of the book related to Wolff’s purpose of conveying the difficulties of his childhood was the reappearing motif of driving quickly or recklessly. When Dwight was driving Jack up to Chinook for the summer he stopped at a tavern and when he emerged he began driving home extremely quickly to try and frighten Jack into submission. Wolff said that, “He drove fast but I didn’t worry until we hit a series of curves and the car began to fishtail,” while driving over “a stretch of road [that] ran alongside a steep gorge” (89). This type of reckless behavior must have numbed Jack towards the dangers of driving quickly because as he got older he began to do the same thing with his friends, even going as far as to sneak “out of the house after midnight to take the car for joyrides” (174).
I agree that the idea of disappointment and expectations places a large part in this memoir. I feel that this happens to many children, and it is likely that he, too chooses to come up with new possible, yet unlikely, situations. The idea of expectations also coincides with the theme of escapism via imagination. Jack continues his expectations by inventing near impossible situations and hoping his child-like fantasies will come true. Both his expectations and imagination portray his realistic childhood retelling and show his ability to be related to. Both of these ideas play into the motif you mentioned, which is fast driving. One instance of this is when Jack imagines going on a road trip to Mexico with his brother. This motif shows how driving is both destructive, and a release for Jack, as well as shows how his expectations can lead to his own self destruction.
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